2015 NHL Draft: Winners And Losers From An Exciting Weekend

NHL Draft Loser: Edmonton Oilers

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Yes, they drafted the best prospect in the NHL draft in Connor McDavid. However, I’m not a fan of what they did other than drafting him. They traded way too much to grab Griffin Reinhart. Even if Reinhart pans out, hard to say that the Oilers couldn’t have gotten him for cheaper than a first and second rounder. They traded Martin Marincin (who might be better than Reinhart) for lower round picks.

They also committed a huge taboo in trading for a young goaltender with a very small sample size. Will Cam Talbot be a great goalie for the Oilers? Who knows. That’s the problem – committing way too many assets for a huge unknown at a position where guys like Michal Neuvirth and Thomas Greiss are available for zero assets outside of cap space (which the Oilers have plenty of). Talbot played in front of a darn good Rangers team that was riding a tidal wave of puck luck and PDO. Is he more than a guy who benefitted from a perfect storm? Honestly, I don’t know.

They also traded for Eric Gryba, a guy Ottawa wanted to get rid of anyway. He’s a bottom pairing defenseman at best. The Oilers have enough of those types of guys. I get why they traded picks for NHL ready players. It’s sending a message that they are serious about wanting to contend. However, I think they could have gotten better players for their picks. If that’s all they could have gotten for their picks, they should have kept them and taken care of needs in free agency or trades once prices dropped.

They leave this draft having solved their goaltending issues… maybe. Other than that, they still have the same issues that they did. Luckily for them, there’s free agency. But it’s not good to enter free agency with as many holes as the Oilers have. That tends to lead to overpaying, and this year, they’ll have to overpay for mediocrity. That’s never a good thing.

If McDavid lives up to his hype, maybe that helps their draft look better. For what it’s worth, McDavid has lived up to every ounce of hype that has been put on him to this point in his career. Take McDavid away though and the Oilers had a really weak draft. Even with McDavid, it was rather underwhelming.

Next: Winner: Buffalo